


Fine Line

by CordeliaOllivander



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: F/M, Facebook: Draco's Den, Feels, Hogwarts, New Year's Kiss, Secret Relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-29
Updated: 2019-12-29
Packaged: 2021-02-25 03:02:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,228
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22008913
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CordeliaOllivander/pseuds/CordeliaOllivander
Summary: Everyone has secrets... Bellatrix just has more than others. And she likes it that way.
Relationships: Bellatrix Black Lestrange/James Potter
Comments: 4
Kudos: 22
Collections: Let the New Year Slither In





	Fine Line

**Author's Note:**

> For the Dracos' Den SlytherIn NYE Drabble Challenge I was given:
> 
> The Slytherin your story must focus around: Bellatrix Lestrange  
> Your New Year Celebration Word/Phrase Prompt: Fancy seeing you here...
> 
> This is my first attempt at this pairing, and I enjoyed writing Bellatrix waayyy too much :)   
> Enjoy!

The first time Bellatrix Black ever really looked at James Potter, he wasn’t even aware of it.

She liked to hide in the astronomy tower. It was quiet, and slightly frightening if she was being really honest with herself. She’d always been drawn to things she shouldn’t be.

One James Potter for example.

It was her fourth year at Hogwarts, and she and her sisters had decided to stay for the holidays instead of returning home. Cissa was only in her second year, but Andie was to graduate this year. Bella knew that she would never see her sister again after that. It was obvious that she didn’t fit in with the rest of the family. Bella on the other hand couldn’t help but have a fascination with the dark arts. Her family had ingrained that interest into her since the day she was born.

_“You can change, Bella.”_ Andromeda would so often say. _“Look at me, look at Sirius. He’s fighting it, too. You can change.”_

She knew that... she just didn’t want to. And that was something her sister would never understand.

She liked being this way. She liked the evil things that hid in the shadows of her mind, of her very _soul._

As she sat in the darkest corner of the tower contemplating those very thoughts, she heard footsteps coming up the stairs. She knew she wouldn’t be spotted, so with curious eyes she watched to see who her intruder was.

James Potter.

She had heard that he and his gang of Gryffindor’s were staying at Hogwarts for the holidays. She stared, completely unashamed, as he walked right up to the edge and gazed at the moon. It was just a moon... nothing special about it, but as she watched his face became angry, and then sad. A howl in the distance had him nearly hanging off of the edge of the tower to catch a glimpse of whatever it was. He pulled at his hair, making her wonder just what it was that was causing Gryffindor’s Golden Boy to be in such distress. 

Potter was perfect in everyone’s eyes. He was popular with the other students and very well liked by all of the teachers, despite the amount of detentions he and his friends received. He was a rising star in quidditch, a natural on a broom, as she so often heard. In the deepest corner of her mind, she would even call him attractive. His unruly mess of hair was very similar to her own, and somehow she liked that.

She watched him have a mumbled conversation with himself. She watched him pace and then sit and then pace some more. She wondered if she should speak to him, if maybe she could figure out what was wrong. She didn’t exactly care, but she was curious. She stood up and made one small step forward-

“James! There you are!”

“Hey, Pete.”

Peter Pettigrew rushed to his friends side, completely out of breath but trying his best to disguise it. “Sirius and I have been looking everywhere for you.”

“Sorry, mate. I just... I don’t know.”

He looked up at the night sky again, and Bellatrix thought that they were having a conversation without even speaking a single word. Their body language convinced her that Pettigrew already knew what was on Potter’s mind. Their pack was an odd one.

“Come on.” Pettigrew slung his arm around Potter’s shoulders and guided him away from the edge. “We’ll be no help to him tomorrow if we stay up all night sulking about it.”

“You’re right, Pete.” Potter sighed. “Thanks.”

Bellatrix stayed a while longer, now with new things to think about.

* * *

Potter became the rising star of Hogwarts. He was smart, good looking, and everyone’s favorite person. Bellatrix was just as smart but no one bothered to take notice. Her wild, unmanageable hair reflected too much of her personality, and she was not well liked by anyone outside of Slytherin... except for James Potter.

She would never be able to explain it. Sometimes they’d go weeks without a single interaction, other times they’d find themselves sneaking out every night to met up to do the most wicked of intimate things. Now it was New Year’s Eve, and Bellatrix found herself once again alone in the astronomy tower, thinking of things she shouldn’t be thinking about.

“Fancy meeting you here.”

She turned suddenly to see Potter standing there, his signature smirk fixed upon his face.

“James.” She breathed.

His smile got just a bit brighter. He loved it when she called him James.

“Why are you back so soon?”

His soured instantly. “I’m sure you're well aware of what happened by now.” He said darkly. “You have to.”

Bellatrix walked over and wrapped her arms around his neck, his automatically going to her waist. Cissa had sent her a letter just yesterday about what happened to Sirius. She couldn't help but wonder what it felt like to cast the cruciatus... how much hatred it would require. “How is he?” She asked before her thoughts ran away. 

“He’s better. My mom healed him up pretty good. But you know how Sirius is, nothing phases him on the outside. When it was just him and I though, he was pretty hurt by it all.”

“He hasn’t been a member of that family for a long time.” She responded bluntly. 

“I think some small part of him still wanted to be. If only for a moment, you know? I think somehow he still wanted them to accept him.”

Bellatrix snorted, she couldn’t help it.

James chuckled at the sound. “I know. Anyway, we come back a few days early, and I knew you’d be up here, so here I am.”

“How every gentlemanly of you.” She drawled.

“It’s New Year’s Eve. You know what that means?” He gave his eyebrows a wiggle and leaned in a sliver closer.

She rolled her eyes, but smiled. “It means that you're going to become a sentimental idiot.”

“Oh, come now.” He purred as he pulled her even closer to him. “Don’t be like that.”

  
She didn’t hold any illusions that any of this could work, and more so she didn't want it to. Potter chased that mudblood around day and night like a lost puppy, and he would never be was she really wanted. He would never fit into the lifestyle that she craved. What he was though... was exciting. Forbidden. Her own dark secret.

This was her final year at Hogwarts after all. James had another year to go, but that didn’t matter, everything would change the day she walked out of this castle.

The fireworks began to burst into the night sky, signaling midnight and the beginning of a new year. She looked into James’s eyes and realized that she liked having a secret. She liked playing with fire, seeing just how close she could get before she got burned. And if she did... what those flames would feel like.

So in classic Black fashion, she decided to not give a damn about anything else but what she felt right now. Barely controlled lust.

“Well, Potter?” She breathed against his lips. “Are you going to keep me waiting?”

James grinned wickedly at her, then backed her right up against the cold brick wall and pinned her there. “Do I ever?” 


End file.
